


Places We Haven't Been

by ElijahDarling



Series: words i have no translation for [1]
Category: For the People (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aromantic Character, Aromantic Kate Littlejohn, F/F, F/M, Gen, Lesbian Kate Littlejohn, Multi, Queer Kate Littlejohn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, soulmarks can mean many things, this will be a series within a series fight me, writing fics for the collection on the basis that if you build a fandom they will come
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 13:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14832968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElijahDarling/pseuds/ElijahDarling
Summary: "Homesick for a home she doesn’t know."Sandra Bell has no Soulmarks.





	Places We Haven't Been

1.

Sandy has no one for far too long. There was someone (not Someone or The One) and then her mom is gone. Eventually all she is left with is a duffel bag that she packs light to make room for emotional baggage and no name on her ribs or tucked like a whisper behind her ear. She  _ looks _ too. Desperate. Homesick for a home she doesn’t know. 

 

_ Das Fernweh _ .  _ Hiraeth _ . 

 

No name hidden between her shoulder blades. No name in the delicate skin between her toes. Nothing under her tongue, no weight in her mouth, no weight on her shoulder the duffel bag hangs from. No Someones for Sandra Bell. 

 

So she is just a someone.

  
2.

Leonard isn’t one to fight the current.  _ Kate Littlejohn _ is ever so neatly penned into his left heel, so he makes a beeline to her side the moment that there might be a chance of a moment. She doesn’t blink at his name, seems to just carefully file it away like she would a date from a powerpoint presentation in college. She regards him, weighs him, measures him, and then welcomes him. Without his name saving a place for him, and without a care for her name wrapped in his sock.

 

He dives into her tide, content to see what the fates would have her be to him. 

 

He bites his cheek the first time Kate smiles at him. The sloppily scrawled  _ Sandra Bell _ written there hurts when he drinks too hot coffee. He smiles back.

  
3.

Seth wants to fucking  _ die _ when he meets his new girlfriend’s best friend.  _ Sandra Bell _ ? Fucking Sandra Bell? He’d been branded so embarrassingly with that name - just a bit over his ass - an off center tramp stamp. He pulls her aside as Allison goes ahead to check on their reservations, and  _ Sandra _ (Sandy?) turns sharp eyes toward him. She is understandably wary, given the situation, he thinks.

 

“What are we going to do?” He groans. Her eyebrows raise.

 

“Have… dinner?” There is a slight hesitation in her tone.

 

“No, no - I mean - you’re my  _ soulmate _ .”

 

“I’m not.” (He can  _ feel  _ more than hear the scoff.)

 

“Oh yeah? Well I have one enormously misplaced Soulmark that says otherwise and I am not about to get arrested for public indecency to prove you wrong.”

 

“Okay, okay. Just keep your pants on, please.”

 

Allison returns at that precise moment, because of course she does.

 

“Private conversation or can I join this party?” He cannot tell if she is teasing or warning. 

 

Sandra Bell wryly smiles. “He says that he has my Name, Al.” 

 

Seth dreads the coming scene. All he wanted to do was tell Sandy that while she may be his soulmate, he had a good feeling about Allison, and he wasn’t about to get caught up in fairytales over some name on his right buttcheek. Now Allison is sure to dump him. He can feel his shoulders slumping in anticipation.

 

“Oh, yeah. That.” Allison grins. “I saw it when he got out of the shower last week. Your handwriting is atrocious, Ms. Bell.” Her voice is teacher prim, but warm.

 

Sandy ( _ Sandra _ ?) rolls her eyes and asks if their table is ready.

 

He doesn’t know quite what to make of her (he wonders what she’ll make of him).

  
4.

Having  _ Sandra Bell _ placed prominently and so messily on her sternum is what got Kate’s family through her coming out as a lesbian. So she will always be grateful for this woman she doesn’t know that had her stern and withholding father bending enough to give a simple nod and the comment: “That’s to be expected, I suppose.” 

 

She will also always be a little resentful of the pushiness of this Soulmark, that declared her before she declared herself. That introduced itself before Kate had a chance to introduce herself. That said “you will love” to everyone she knew when all she wanted was the chance to stand and shine by her own light.

 

It was easy to come out as a lesbian because of the Soulmark. Telling her parents she had no plans to settle down and no desire to facilitate such plans now or in the future? Well, then  _ Sandra Bell _ was a damning mark. A promise she’d already broken. 

 

_ Sandra Bell _ was inescapable, an inconvenience. A - a  _ nuisance _ .

 

Sandra Bell, the person, was much the same. 

 

(She was a promise kept.)

 

Kate told her to go into the courtroom first.

**Author's Note:**

> Leonard Knox's soulmark placement inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles%27_heel#/media/File:Peter_Paul_Rubens_181.jpg
> 
> Das Fernweh is German. Hiraeth is Welsh.
> 
> I Tumblr at https://elijahdarling.tumblr.com/ Come prompt me?

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Places We Haven't Been [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16583327) by [litrapod (litra)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litrapod)




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